Stranger
by 14karatgold
Summary: I knew why he’d come to see me in the dead of night. I just wondered when it would happen. I knew he couldn’t stand to stay forever. Oneshot ZxD


Summary- I knew why he'd come to see me in the dead of night. I just wondered when it would happen. I knew he couldn't stand to stay forever. Oneshot ZxD

Rated T –Romance/Angst

Disclaimer- No, I'm not the owner of Final Fantasy. Keep looking.

Stranger

_He's a stranger to some /And a vision to none /He can never get enough/Get enough of the world //For a fortune he'd quit /But it's hard to admit /How it ends and begins /On his face is a map of the world. –From Yesterday (30 Seconds to Mars)_

xxx

He stood in my window. A lone silhouette, head bowed away from me with one hand on the wall. He'd probably changed his mind about telling me what he was thinking. It was too late though. I was already awake, and judging by the way he had paused after I had asked my question, it didn't seem like I was going to get back to my wonderful dream for a while.

He didn't think so much before, while we were on our adventures, but I think that after we left him, he'd done some growing up. Enough at least to understand why we couldn't sleep in the same room. Enough for me to understand why he'd decided to do what he was about to do.

I sat up in my bed and surveyed him carefully. He must have felt me watching him, because he turned on the spot and walked towards me slowly. "You understand then?" he asked.

"Of course," I answered, keeping an almost professional grip on my emotions. "I just wondered when it would happen." He smiled sadly, a wistful expression on his face, a face lit up by the moonlight.

"I'll be back," he said simply.

"I know you will. But I also knew that you couldn't stand to stay forever," I admitted honestly, the corners of my mouth trying to make light of the situation and failing miserably. "And not everyone will understand this as well as I. Eiko will take it particularly hard when I write to her." He chuckled as he remembered the little girl that had pined over him for months.

"I must make a note to see her," he said. "Sometime _after_ you write," he added with a knowing smirk. I couldn't help but smile with him. The look on the little girl's face would indeed be priceless.

It was silent for a long time. A slightly uncomfortable silence. "Well, maybe when I've seen enough of the world I'll come back and marry you," I looked up sharply, "no matter what the conservatives say." But I knew he wouldn't stay with me long enough to be King. Even when he'd seen every corner of the world and every inch of the ocean he would only stay by my side long enough to say, 'I love you' then he'd jump out the window again.

He touched my cheek with his gloved finger and pulled my face up to his for a gentle kiss goodbye. A tender, careful kiss that conveyed all emotions pent up behind that professional wall I'd put up. "I love you," he said, as expected. "I'll be back to claim you soon enough." I smiled in strength for him, though I knew he was just trying to protect my quickly splintering heart.

I knew I wasn't enough to keep him grounded. Nothing was. I only wished that I could go with him. I told him as much.

"But that's the problem with being a monarch," I added, making careful note of his reaction. "You can only travel for so long." His lips twitched a little, then he looked down. He knew now that I knew his true intentions. He would never marry me because then he would never see the world again. The world was who he was, the people he'd met, the places he'd seen. He'd want to see it all again, but if he was mine, and solely mine, he would never see his true love, Gaia, again.

Gaia was the only think that kept him grounded. Her gravity pulled him towards her in a way that my love for him could not. I understood, he understood, Gaia understood.

He stroked my tousled hair and approached my window again.

"How did you get up here?" I asked again, this time allowing myself a small smile.

"Same way I always do, Dagger. You know that Rusty's not enough to keep me away from you for too long. And neither is Gaia. I'll be home soon enough." And he jumped out, tail flailing wildly. I heard the soft flump of him landing in the courtyard below before I got out of bed to close my window against the unseasonable chill, suddenly present because he was not.

"If only here was your home," I whispered to the lonely darkness around me. "If only I was your home."

Xxx

Oooh yay. Tell me what you think! That blue button isn't just there for decoration you know!

kt


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